One of the best things about having Pastel Zine is working with new artists - so I was very excited to have the chance to interview Brujita about their brand new ep and much more! Thank you so much for your amazing answers and the awesome photographs which accompany the interview!

AQ: Can you tell us a bit about how your Brujita ep came about and also the name itself? I know it’s your first ep, which is very exciting. I love it – it’s such a cool mix of rap, soul and dreamy pop. It’s very accomplished for a debut!

Brujita: Ah thank you so much! That honestly means a lot, this ep was honestly going to be something I was going to share to the 19 people who follow my finsta. It all started with “Deja Me Ir”, made the beat back in 2017 and had written to it, was originally titled “Bby Boy”, I wasn’t really feeling it so I scrapped it. Fast forward to fall of 2018, I was going through a lot and I was writing songs from left to right. One night I decided listen to the beat for “Deja Me Ir” to see if it would click with what I wrote, digged it, recorded millions of times, and decided that night that I wanted to put out an ep.

So the name “Brujita” came from Kali, last spring I went to go see her perform at Space 15 Twenty in LA. After the set she brought us into her green room and I wanted to share with her me identifying as non-binary and going with the pronouns she/they. I remember she signed a magazine I brought that night and her writing “Brujita” along with a cute ass message. It just stuck with me. To be referred to as my correct pronouns feels absolutely amazing, some of my closest friends still haven’t clicked with it so it means the world to me when someone gets it right.

AQ: I first met you online through the Kali Uchis updates account you run and an accompanying group chat. I feel like there’s a kinship between Kali’s music and yours – you both love diverse genres, older music and switch between English and Spanish. You also cover a Tommy Genesis song on this ep. Can you tell us a bit about the importance of these artists to you and what some of the other influences on your music are? Not just musically.

Brujita: Yes! Ugh we need to all get together one day somehow. Kali’s music is definitely a huge influence on this project along with artists like Tommy Genesis, BbyMutha, La Goony Chonga, and so on. I guess when it comes to music, anyone I’m extremely digging kind of inspires me to do things certain things in my music but like with my own twist to it. Aside from musical influences, movies really inspire me. I remember writing “Lil Angel Baby” after watching “Mi Vida Loca” which is a movie about Gangs, the come up of Echo Park in LA, relationships, and much more. It’s a must watch.

AQ: Are you part of a scene locally or is your musical community more online? You have collaborated with a number of producers on your ep. How did you link up with them? How does place contribute to your music? You create some quite specific atmospheres.

Brujita: (Ah little side note but it wasn’t more so a collab but beats I found online that I made sure were okay to use, like non-profit beats).

I actually am not, I do know quite a few people who do music but it’s not really like a whole circle. Everyone is doing their own thing. I’m still trying to learn how to produce beats and is something I would love to work on so I don’t have to rely on finding beats online. Nothing wrong with using someone else’s beats but I would love to fully showcase what I’m capable of if that makes sense. I’m very picky with almost everything, I was very precise when choosing beats. Also I needed to make sure that the songs I wrote would flow with them. Well most of the project was written in LA which is a huge city (that I’ve gotten lost in countless of times), I grew up in San Francisco so being in a whole new environment and basically starting all over impacted the way I made music.

AQ: What inspires you lyrically? Your songs are emotional. I love that. You have talked about how your songs are both love songs and explore your identity. They feel political.

Brujita: I think just real life experiences, not just my own but experiences that I’m apart of. Yes, my music is one of the few outlets I have to express what I’m feeling and talk about what I’m going through. I would say the music is political in the aspect that I’m non-binary and I’m using my preferred pronouns without like caring what others think. Many think “oh you just switched your pronouns” but it’s so much more than that, it’s what identify as and it’s important for me to be able to express it especially in the political climate we’re in. I won’t hide or suppress who I am because you’re uncomfortable or don’t agree with it. That’s a personal problem that you need to deal with baby.

AQ: Can you share a bit more about how your song writing process works? Do you write to beats or come up with the lyrics first and then create the music/work with producers to get a specific sound? You have some really cool sounds and contrasts throughout the ep between the harder raps and the softer and more soulful vibes. Is being a solo artist more of a challenge or more freeing?

Brujita: A lot of the songs/raps I wrote come from experiences I’ve gone through, clearly a majority of the ep is about men (multiple ones. Yikes, I know). Honestly it could go either way, sometimes I wake up and I’ll have certain words stuck in my head which then turns to a song. Sometimes I’ll listen to a beat and then based on the vibes I got from it is how I form words to go with it. I think being solo and basically independent should be a freeing experience in the sense that I have all creative control over what I do which is very important to me. I don’t think I could ever deal with a team/management telling me what to do and such, it’d break me. I will say though, being solo does mean I fund myself which means I still got to work my ass off at my regular job so that I’m able to put out music the way I want.

AQ: You are a photographer as well as a musician. How do your different art forms relate to one another? What are the benefits of working across different forms? I love the aesthetic of your photography.

Brujita: Well being a photographer comes in handy cause if no one can do photos for me for whatever reason. I got me, I know I can create some magical photos on my own. Side note, hire a photographer, your little friends who take insta pics for you won’t give you the results you want. I think some of the benefits of being a photographer and an artist would probably being able to make connections from both art forms. Awe thank you! I’m planning some shoots this year and totally want to revamp my work. Going for a whole new refined look.

AQ: What can we expect from Brujita in the future? Another ep or album? Videos? Collaborations?

Brujita: Well I have a visual for it coming out soon. I’m very excited to share it. Brujita was done a month before the release and I saved a few songs from the original track list that I would like to maybe add to the next one though I most likely won’t because I like starting things from scratch. Collabs? None planned but would love to for my next project which will be out sometime this year. Can’t give a specific time, i’m so indecisive so we’ll see!

One of my favourite EP’s of recent times is UK based pop musician SATU’s Growing Up EP. She has been releasing music over the last few years and I have only become more and more of a fan or her, so it was exciting to get the chance to do this interview! Thank you to Sinead for answering all my questions so thoughtfully!

AQ: I discovered your music through your Instagram which I seem to remember Laurence Philomene shared. You are an illustrator as well as a musician. I love your illustrations! Do you enjoy working in different artistic genres? Which came first for you or have they developed alongside one another?

SATU: Thanks so much! I would have to say the drawing part came first, I've been doing it for as long as I remember and both my parents are artists - so maybe that was unavoidable, haha. But also, I definitely think once I started making music it became more of a package deal. I think combining the two was an important level-up for my musical ~identity~, if that makes sense. I love how cover art and music videos can have such an influence on how a song might be received by an audience, and I put a lot of thought into that side of it when creating my own. When I started out I would get frustrated with how my songs came out because I'm a perfectionist (and also impatient), but having control over the aesthetic through illustrating the cover art etc. allowed me to build on the stories in my music. Music videos are something I've been obsessed with forever, I think they might be my favourite art form. I first started making them with my childhood friend Sophie years ago, (and still do) and I'd get so excited to finish a song so that she could plan a video for it. We'd spend a day filming somewhere in our little town, dressing up, dancing around, lip-syncing. It’s really cool being able to collaborate like that with someone you know so well. I also LOVE the video Laurence made for my song Honey, I think the softness in their style was perfect for capturing the shy sweet vibe of the song. I've been a big fan of their work for years so it was a dream to work with someone I really admire! I've been delving into directing my own videos more recently, and I feel like it's really helping me strengthen the narrative of a song when I can dream up a whole visual world around it.

AQ: Your lyrics are fascinating. They tell vivid and emotional stories. How does a song begin for you?

SATU: That's so lovely to hear! I think writing lyrics might be my favourite part of the process, so it makes me really happy when people pay attention to them, haha. A lot of the time I'll start a song just by playing around until I find a bassline or vocal melody that I like the sound of, and build on that - but more recently I've been keeping a note on my phone that I'll add ideas to when I'm out and about, anything from poetry fragments to memories to sensations that I might want to interpret in a song. I hate getting writers block so I take care not to let myself forget if I think of something that could be really good! Sometimes I'll get a random lyric going round my head in the middle of the night, and I'll have to get up and make a note or a voice memo of it before I can get back to sleep.

AQ: Can you tell me a bit about how you make your music? Are there particular programmes you create your beats on or do you use analogue instruments? It has an analogue sound but is also very futuristic. What is your recording process like?

SATU: I use Logic! Mainly because I learned the basics of that programme at college while studying Music Tech, and then I would stay after class and experiment with it on my own until I started getting a sound that I wanted. I actually wish I could use analogue synths and stuff like that but I get really easily overwhelmed by cables and machines and stuff for some reason, so over time I've realised that I don't have to do that and it’s just as valid to create everything through software. When I'm composing I just use a laptop and headphones, I've never even splashed out on a MIDI keyboard, ha. I technically can't really play the keyboard so it never felt super necessary to buy one? Although its fiddly and annoying, I just use the typing keyboard on my laptop and program in all the melodies and drum beats that way. My vocal recording process has developed a bit more over the years though; I used to just sing into the mic on my earphones, but now I've upgraded to a Shure sm7b and a little interface. I think its important for me to have a very simple recording/composing setup because it allows me to focus more on fine-tuning the details in the song.

SATU: There are so many! I love David Lynch, and am definitely heavily influenced by his brand of uncomfortable-yet-sultry surrealism in my own creative work. The top three films that come to mind are Whisper of the Heart, Pretty in Pink, and Submarine. I've watched them all countless times and I don't think I'll ever get bored of them. My taste is pretty disjointed, like, I could watch 80s high school movies all day every day, but I also have the Alien boxset and love every instalment in the series a lot. When I was younger I used to read a lot, for a while almost exclusively graphic novels - one of my favourites was Dame Darcy's Meat Cake anthology, I love her drawing style and sense of humour. Anything by Tove Jansson will also forever have a place in my heart, my favourite book of hers is Moominvalley in November because it has a melancholy about it that is so familiar and nostalgic, and out of all the books is probably the most quiet and sad. I remember my dad reading the Moomin books to me when I was little but I also think they are beautiful books however old you are.

Music-wise: I think if I'm being strict with myself, my single all-time top musical influence would have to be Patrick Wolf. He was my first real role model in music. I saw him perform by chance at a record store with my mum when I was 12, and I was just totally transfixed. He cried while singing one of his songs, and before that I don't think I had never witnessed such a real-time emotional connection between music and musician - I actually 'taught myself to sing' by singing along to my Patrick Wolf CD collection, his voice is so sublime and I just wanted to be him haha. That was really the moment I knew I wanted to make music, and he's still one of my absolute heroes. I also ADORE boybands, so obviously BTS have to be mentioned – it’s been amazing watching them gain success and recognition worldwide over the last few years, they deserve so much! Pop music in general really fascinates me and I love listening out for all the details in the production, it inspires me a lot and I can't resist the slickness of it all.

AQ: Your Instagram has a very pink and kawaii aesthetic but there’s a darkness to the cuteness and a fairy-tale element which I also like. Does this inform your art at all? What ideas interest you?

SATU: Oh yes, that connection/juxtaposition is definitely very important in anything I make. Whether it’s a film or a song or a painting, I'm most drawn to something if it has an element of innocence or sweetness combined with something more abrasive and dark. I think it's just a part of my personality really, and shows itself in the objects and clothes I surround myself with. I'm very drawn to certain visual things without really knowing why, like my obsession with pink - I have no idea when or how it started, but it almost makes me physically uncomfortable if my space doesn't look the way I want it to. I like working with themes of immersion and dream worlds, in my music as well as my artwork - throughout my time at art school I've been playing with ideas around the psyche, alternate realities, and the use of stories and characters to manifest emotions, or symbolise more private/secret sides to my personality.

AQ: Do you have any favourite artists and/or zines and festivals/galleries you have worked with?

SATU: I remember in 2015, Aether Magazine put some of my illustrations in their third issue, with an interview and everything; which was probably the first time anyone had showed a genuine interest in my work like that, and it was so sweet and exciting. I'm always pleasantly surprised when someone has followed my work for a long time, and the editor, Mia Sakai, is super cool and lovely – it’s really inspiring to see how far her magazine has come over just a few years! Last December I was also lucky enough to be invited to sell some prints at the launch of issue 12, which is really the only time I've ever sold my art at an event, and it was a really chill and fun atmosphere.

AQ: What’s next for SATU?

SATU: Well, short-term, I have a couple of music videos in the pipeline for songs on my recent EP that I'm really excited to share someday soon. Once I'm done with my final year of uni I want to put a lot more effort into performing regularly, because it’s something I really enjoy doing, even as a very introverted person - I also feel like it’s an important way for me to connect with other creatives. Longer-term, I've given myself the task of gradually compiling and revisiting about two albums' worth of my old songs that I'm planning to re-record and release online once they feel 'finished' to me. A lot of those songs I made when I was around 16, and they still need a lot of work. Some of them used to be on the internet and obviously I'm a perfectionist so I've since deleted most of them - and then I was really surprised when a couple of people messaged me saying they really connected with one of those songs, and asked why it wasn't around anymore. That made me realise it would be a shame to never revisit all those old songs and just leave them on a hard drive forever, so I gave myself this project to try and give myself closure on all the music I semi-abandoned, as well as finally letting some very raw emotional material be heard in a way I can be proud of.

Kitty and Sam Ray were kind enough to talk to me about their new project The Pom-Poms! It’s no secret that I’m a massive fan of this ep already - I have been listening to it on repeat. I’m a big fan of both artist’s solo works and it was fascinating to hear about their unique collaborative process! This ep is just the beginning for The Pom-Poms and interviewing them was just as fun as their music is. Thank you Sam and Kitty!

AQ: I’m loving your self-titled ep! It makes me really happy whenever I listen to it. It’s a record that’s fun and you can dance to it but there’s more depth there in both your production and song writing talents. I know you say the lyrics are silly and I admit that I caught that vibe from Mary Poppins the first time I listened to it, but I also think it’s genius. I can really imagine this character. It’s an extremely funny song. The production is to die for too. How do you create something that seems both polished and so exuberant and effortless?

Kitty: First of all- thank you very much!! As far as the lyrics go- I struggle with "quality control" when it comes to writing in general. Especially since writing my last album, I've noticed myself becoming overly conscious of the messages I'm conveying and the words I'm using, and I sort of drive myself crazy sometimes trying to make every syllable "perfect". With this project, I didn't feel like I needed to agonize over my lyrics, and I think that made it so much better; it's been a long time since I felt okay recording a song I hadn't spend weeks poring over. Some of the lyrics are literally just made up on the spot (most of Full Circle), some of them are built around one silly sentence I thought sounded good (Mary Poppins).

In terms of production, we've both spent the past couple of years learning about production and trying to improve the way our music sounds. All of our past projects have been pretty DIY and lo-fi, so it was cool to have a reason to practice the things we've learned and I think that contributes a lot to the more "polished" sound.

Sam:I think something we have going for us that maybe a lot of others don’t – and that’s not a knock on anyone or a big-up for us, either, but just a fact based on… well, our life, the fact we’re married, we work together in one house/shared studio spaces/etc – is that when one of us starts working on a track the other produced, or mixed, we’re right there to work in real time, to re-tool that instrumental, that beat, whatever, to the song that’s being written, in real life, or the next day – it’s like two minds working as one and four hands as two.

For example, Mary Poppins – I made that instrumental like…. 16 months before the EP came out, at least, it was going to be some generic boring EDM-y song, maybe as a lark or something – but it felt skeletal and hollow and I never went back to mix it or finish it. One day Kitty tells me she’s recorded an idea over it, and even un-mixed like it was, just kind of vocals raw over a shitty, unmixed track like that, I heard immediately exactly what she heard, like, the “finished song” I guess, so to speak, and the very next day I went back re-working and re-building that track to fit her voice, adding whole new sections, structuring it out the way she had in mind, etc.

The whole second verse is new to the song, none of those drums, bass, etc – nothing about that flip was there originally, but it felt like the right thing to fit what she’d written. A lot of singers, rappers, whatever – you get a beat from someone, and you record over it, and MAYBE sometimes your own producer or whoever, they have the stems for that beat and they put some work in re-working stuff to fit you better, but it’s rarely one vision, it’s rarely the same producer making the beat, running the session, mixing the song – and when you’re mixing someone else’s instrumental, for someone else’s song, you don’t really feel comfortable adding your own ideas, changing things, playing around with it.

We have this sort of freedom, working together, to push things in as far a direction as we want, as we’re able, and if it fails – it fails (and it often fails) – but after you fail a few times, you might hit on something really, truly momentous that you could never reach just working traditionally, working straight that way, linear-fashion, like “beat is made, song is written & recorded to beat, both are mixed together”. No, that’s so rigid (by nature, by design) and the way we like to work brings a huge amount of fluidity and experimentation to it that is absent, working that way, and it’s always in support of the song, it’s always something done in order to make the best song we possibly can, to make something pop. Plus, we check each other haha, if I have a really bad idea, there’s someone brilliant there to tell me, honestly, that I’m chasing the wrong car, or yelling at the wrong tree, you know?

AQ: The feeling I get listening to a song like I Got That Boom is something like listening to Kyary or PC music. It’s so hyper! It’s a complete rush. Are you a big fan of that kind of music?

Kitty: We LOVE PC Music and Kyary. Most of the music I listen to is equally fun and hyper.

Sam has a way of taking a bunch of disjointed, jarring sounds and turning them into songs that sound tantalizing in a way- it's a weird, intricate process that mostly makes no sense to me. I think a lot of the PC Music-vibe comes from that.

Sam: Yes. Especially K-pop & J-pop stuff, Pc Music - GFOTY especially – her stuff is hugely influential to me. There are a lot of things – some surprising, maybe – that went into that song, for me, producing it. There’s a lot of the immediacy of like, the old nu-metal, rap-rock stuff that’s maybe so garish & juvenile & off-putting to think back on, for a lot of people our age, or whatever, but there’s such a specifically huge and immediate “pop” sense to so many of those tracks, in the production & also the songwriting, there’s a reason all of those bands had huge, absolutely massive major label deals.

Something like “breaking the habit” by Linkin Park, it’s so incredibly pop. You absolutely can’t deny it. Same for Black Eyed Peas, DEV/Far East Movement, stuff like that that absolutely dominated pop radio a while ago, before EDM took over – it’s so absolutely “fun”, it never lets up, if you listen to any of those Black Eyed Peas hits now you notice how incredibly smart they are, as pop music, despite being like, absolutely stupid (not a bad thing fyi), via things like “my lovely lady lumps” or the Dick Dale sample, or whatever.

I guess I bring it up via the word “hyper”. It’s hyper music, without a doubt, it’s restless, it goes through five, six, seven melodic ideas, different styles of production, references, etc, in two or three minutes (or less) and each one you think “oh they can’t top this” and they do. That’s something I love so much, from all those acts & genres.

AQ: How does the process of collaborating work for the two of you? Do you both work on lyrics and music together or does one of you take the lead in each area and then you bring it together? What about recording and producing?

Kitty: It's pretty different every time. Mostly, one of us will have a very very basic idea- a drum beat, or a vocal melody, or a synth lead- and we'll pass it back and forth, adding things and making little changes until we end up with a song. We record and produce everything in our house, so there's a lot of times where I'll be cooking dinner or something, hear Sam working on a song through the walls and run upstairs to tell him an idea I have for it. Things like that.

Sam: Oh it’s always a little different. I haven’t written words for anything yet, or sung on anything more than one track, but I plan to change that with our new stuff – we’re working on stuff that’s more like “duet” style, like Die Antwoord haha where I can work my voice in, hopefully in a smart way that isn’t off-putting against Kitty’s, since hers is so great & fits so well. We do work on just about everything together, though.

Sometimes Kitty will have drums she wants me to try and add something to, sometimes the other way around. Sometimes I start making a beat & give it to her & she writes to it & changes it, sometimes the other way around. Sometimes she gives me a fully recorded song, over an instrumental we have, and I take the vocals out & make an entirely new song around them – that’s what we did with “I got that boom” – for example. It’s always a bit different, but the core thing is the same – that sense of collaboration, the sense that it’s never “one person’s project” or whatever, even song-by-song. As we go, I only imagine that line will get even more blurred.

Generally Kitty records & I mix, though, as she’s much better at recording, and I enjoy the tedious side of mixing, of listening to one thing over and over and over for a full day, just tweaking it – three hours of just bass & one drum, getting it right. I love that. And that also frees her up to keep writing, keep creating, thinking of new songs, concepts, hooks – I do really like that.

AQ: I feel like with music that’s a lot of fun – people are quick to label it a guilty pleasure. Personally, I’m happy to be guilty. Have you had this reaction to your music at all? I guess you can’t worry too much about critical reactions …

Kitty: I've seen a few people call it a guilty pleasure, but pretty much all of my favorite music is someone's guilty pleasure and ALL of my solo music is labeled as such by critics and pretentious people. It's been that way since 2012, so it doesn't bother me. I can't relate to feeling guilty for enjoying music that is meant to make you happy, but I know it makes some people feel smart to broadcast that feeling. I'm just glad it's a pleasure at all!

Sam: I wouldn’t know, I try to just stay out of that side of it. But I agree with you, about it. I’ve always said that nothing is a guilty pleasure, really, it’s just a matter of people not feeling comfortable with themselves. Like, even the term, you can easily align that with “masculine” men, gross teenagers, whatever wanting to listen to music that they feel culturally isn’t “for them” or like, is “for girls” or whatever, listening to Madonna in the 80s, Britney in the 90s, like feeling like you can’t get “caught” listening to something like that, it’s dumb & it reinforces something toxic, for sure.

But that same thing applies to like, a pop record getting thrashed on a popular music criticism site that grades albums, because it doesn’t do anything academic. Like you’re not citing William Basinski or Gavin Bryars as an influence when you’re making songs just for the club. I said from the jump with this project I want to make fun, club/dance/pop music that aims only to be fun, nothing academic about it. I’m glad that comes through! I hope it is in the lineage of “guilty pleasure” music because that music is the best, and the most fun, I just hope that we move away from that idea as a whole too haha

AQ: I love how inclusive the lyrics of The Pom-Poms are – that’s obviously something that resonates with your fans too. It feels really natural. I’m guessing this is important to both of you?

Kitty: Very much so. The thing is, we didn't mean to make any strong statement by writing "inclusive" lyrics- the goal was to have fun and encourage everyone else to have fun with us. I feel like sometimes people in music (especially people who are very invested in cultivating "scenes") make a big deal about inclusion and safe spaces....who is and isn't ENOUGH of an ally...and sometimes that ends up being kind of counterproductive. We are white cisgender people; we don't know what it's like to be discriminated against for our race and gender. With that in mind, our responsibility is to make the world better for people who don't have the privileges we do WITHOUT adding unnecessary layers of drama.

My goal is to write songs that you can sing along to without feeling weird because you don't look like me. That's it!

Sam: Absolutely.

AQ: I know Kitty is working on another album and Sam is working on new Ricky Eat Acid material. What’s next for both your solo projects and also The Pom Poms. Do you think that working as a duo is informing what you are doing solo at the moment and vice versa?

Kitty: Honestly at this point we spend so much time together that everything we do sort of bleeds into what I'm working on at this point. That's just me though- I think Sam's brain is much different. Sometimes I'll see on Twitter that he released a song and it'll be one I didn't even know he was working on lol.

Sam: We’re working on all kinds of new stuff, which is wonderful, I love the new Pom Poms stuff we’re doing, like I said, I’m hoping to work my voice more into it, and also since we’ve put out kind of our first “hello world” release, we can start branching out into more experimental avenues with anything upcoming, which is nice. Like, we can tone it down for a song and try something just genuinely very beautiful, if we want, like trance, or slowed down trance-pop somehow. Or we can take that thrashy, heavy, hardcore metal etc influenced side (like from songs like ‘pass her the aux’) and bring that out further, make something more angular, louder.

It’s fun to try and synthesize these influences better, but also to push outward, make sure we don’t develop, accidentally, any boundaries to what we feel is “our sound” or whatever. We don’t want to box ourselves into something, the whole point of the project (to me, at least) is to make something intrinsically “pop” out of…. everything. everything we like. everything we hear, everything that inspires us. to take in everything. a big katamari ball of music, just chewing up every sound we like and encounter and are perplexed by or in love with.

I love discovering new music and discovering something really quite different that is also local is extra cool! Christchurch based experimental rap group There Are No Bees are pretty new, but are already making exciting music. Their EP ‘Before’ has just been released and they are preparing their upcoming debut album. Thank you to TANB for their thoughtful answers to my questions. This was a really enjoyable interview and I’m looking forward to hearing more from them in the future!

AQ: I’m loving your new ep ‘Before’! Congratulations on reaching 1000 plus Spotify listens in a couple of weeks. Can you tell me a bit about yourselves? How did There Are No Bees come together? I hate to ask the name question, but it’s an intriguing one so I would be curious to know where it came from …

TANB: Thanks so much! It’s a big milestone for us but we hope that it is only the beginning. It all started at a house party about a year and a half ago where we (Sam, Josh and Will) were sheltering from the rain in a tent and Josh mentioned that he had been writing some raps. Sam had some of his beats on his phone so we were like ‘let’s do this’ and we spent the next hour sharing verses. A few weeks later we decided it’d be fun to get a group together. Josh came up with the name, it comes from a poem of his from a little while back. The poem was about love and loss and ‘there are no bees’ was one of the final lines in the poem. Josh has been writing poems for years and always likes it when new creative endeavours pay some homage to past things so he was really happy we all agreed to use that name.

AQ: Do you write your raps and lyrics individually and then bring everything together or do you write collectively? What inspires you lyrically? You have some quite playful raps and then darker and more introspective ones. You also venture into quite surreal spoken word stuff, which is a really cool contrast.

TANB: We generally work off concepts. This is more prevalent in our upcoming album which will retrospectively reveal more about ‘Before’. We usually get together, listen to the latest beat that Sam has made, and then decide on a theme or a story we want that track to be about. After this we separate and come back together with our verses, give feedback and then lay them down. Lyrically everyone has different inspirations which we really try and accentuate. There’s no point in a rap collective if everyone sounds the same and has the same view. The contrast comes from real life (we know it sounds cheesy). Once we decide what to write about, we all have to draw from our own experiences and we all have good and bad ones. We feel it’s important to share both good and bad in an equally honest way, not everything is bad but sometimes it really is just shitty.

AQ: That contrast is there musically too. I really like how your ep switches between the more song-based raps and then the very abstract experimental electronic tracks that are like drifting away into a forest somewhere. What inspires your musical approach?

TANB: Many different artists influence our musical approach. Lyrically, we all get inspiration from different artists. If we each had to pick the two rappers that inspired us most, Sam would say Yoni Wolf and Doseone, Josh would say Frank Ocean and Earl Sweatshirt and Will would say Loyle Carner and Pell, but we could all go on for hours. It’s also the melding of many different genres that inspires us. Trying to create emotion and transfer experiences in more than just words is important to us. Sam likes to experiment with different and unusual sounds in his beats. ‘Before’ leads into the album we are working on currently and the themes we explore in it. ‘Before’ draws inspiration from the nature of New Zealand, its beauty and its vast loneliness, while our next album is a very ‘Christchurch’ album. Sonically and lyrically it represents our thoughts of our home town and it is much grungier sounding. We are all people that listen to wide ranges of music, not just rap music, so it was pretty natural for us to experiment and use lots of different styles and sounds. It is interesting to see how different people like different tracks and interpret things in varying ways but we are fully aware that our experimental sounds can be polarising.

AQ: I caught a reference to Danger Incorporated and Awful records. That label is definitely known for its experimentation. I don’t know of too many local artists working in your genre although perhaps I just don’t know about them … is there a scene you see yourselves as being a part of locally or in New Zealand or is your outlook more the International d.i.y. underground? And the internet …

TANB: We’re all huge fans of experimental music! We definitely feel like hip-hop, and experimental music in general, is lacking in the New Zealand scene. None of us would consider this group as part of a current scene or movement, we’re looking to create a new one. In terms of an audience, we’re looking internationally, not just locally. That’s what’s so good about the internet, it makes this possible. Some New Zealand artists seem to come out of nowhere with a unique sound e.g. Aldous Harding, Homebrew etc. and we would like to do this too. Yes, Josh is a huge fan of ‘Danger Incorporated’. We all like intertextual music that throws references to other artists, so watch out for some more references in our next album.

AQ: What’s your recording process like? What instruments and/or programs are you using to make your beats and soundscapes?

TANB: I (Sam) produce all of the instrumentals so I’ll answer this one. I carry a portable sampler with me everywhere and that’s where 95% of the sounds on ‘Before’ come from. I’m a devout user of Ableton and I love it to bits. Using Ableton I mangled and mixed the effects to create the strange soundscapes and janky beats of the EP. The next album is more industrial and electronic. It makes more use of my rag tag collection of analogue and digital synthesizers. Don’t worry though it still features many songs evocative of ‘Before’, particularly on the front end. In terms of recording it’s very unprofessional. I get the others around to the small make shift studio in my house and record them using a bike stand as a mic stand with a pantyhose pop filter.

AQ: You have said you have more music and another music video coming. What can we expect from those? Your first video has some great nature vibes!

TANB: You can expect something different for sure. ‘Before’ was a very organic album, and natural sounding. While our next album has moments of this, it’s much more industrial and electronic in nature, akin to its themes. It has a good balance of accessible party music, as well as more dense abstract hits too. Like in ‘Before’ it has a mix of different sounds and we’re really happy with how the whole thing flows together sonically and thematically (won’t give too much away though!). Expect a totally different sound in the next single and a totally different look with the next video. We’re really excited to see what everyone thinks of our other styles.

Check out There are No Bees on Spotify or search for them on Apple Music/iTunes.

I recently had the chance to interview local musician Indi about her solo project, collaborations and upcoming album release/tour prior to her departure to Europe next year. Thank you to Indi for these fascinating and thoughtful answers to my questions!

AQ: You have released a collection of solo instrumental recordings, an album with Motte as New Dawn and most recently a soundtrack to a dance work. Your debut solo album is due out soon as well. You can tell a lot of detail goes into every track. Can you talk a bit about your process with all the different solo works and collaborations?

Indi: i learned how to use DAW back in school by messing around on logic. i wrote and recorded soundscapes constantly, as they seemed to me the most natural form of music through which to learn about recording techniques and FX. i was irreverent about the pieces and my online content, so i chucked them up on soundcloud as soon as i wrote them and the response to those informed me that it was something i was actually okay at. doprah was my first collaborative project (aside from a couple producers here and there that sony had put me with after rockquest) and i hadn't really grown into myself musically when that started, so i wrote only the vocals the first couple of times. once we started working on a body of work, however, i was starting to understand that my strength wasn't actually in the vocals, but in the arrangement side of things - so the writing process developed into more of a 50/50 situation.

my collaboration with anita came about from my fandom of her solo project 'motte', which was stunning - all looped violin. anita was the catalyst for my love affair with strings. for new dawn, i wanted her strings to still be in the spotlight, so i saw my role as simply filling in the frequencies around what she played. collaborations are sometimes painful and a struggle, and other times they are so magical, like you and this other person have suddenly become telepathic. you learn a lot either way so it's worth it. my solo stuff makes me the happiest though. i can dedicate all my energy and time to it and the ideas flow much more easily and instinctively when you don't have to discuss it with another person or justify why you think that sounds good. i think the detailed stuff comes from my very low attention threshold; the music has to be evolving and surprising me continuously, otherwise it's boring. i'm trying to create more space and less details these days though. i'm sure i'll look back on this album and think, 'that was so busy and messy...' i am already starting to think that. but that quality in my music is so reflective of the inside of my head, so maybe it will always sound like that and that's okay.

AQ: Your music has a strong emotional quality whether it's expressed vocally or instrumentally. Is there a difference between creating in each of those ways?

Indi: emotion is the only reason i would write a song. if there is no emotion, there is no point. to me the voice is an instrument in its own right, although is different in that it can have words tied to it, which to some people can have more meaning (though i was never inclined to place all the weight on lyrical content). to me, it isn't about expressing it either way, it is more about the piece. if the piece needs vocals to articulate the emotional message, then i use vocals. if it wants a certain instrument or several, then i use those. if it needs both then it needs both. i'm essentially a slave to the song.

AQ: A lot of artistic and natural inspirations come through in your music as well. Do you have any you'd like to share with readers?

Indi: i grew up in a beautiful place; titirangi is a rainforest and i think that natural surroundings will remain my biggest influence.

AQ: I know you have worked with orchestral settings for your album. How was that process? Is there a tension between the more classical and the more experimental? What artists inspire you?

Indi: classical/orchestral music has produced some of the best experimental/avant-garde pieces in history, so to me the tension doesn't exist there. it lives more between the classical instruments and electronic sounds: one pre-dates another by hundreds of years ( i think). however, i think there is strength in that juxtaposition, and the amalgam of the two is like time travel.

in terms of process, i orchestrate and record everything in midi, usually with basic kontakt sample library. for the album i had a friend in auckland, alex eichelbaum who i knew was a conductor, so he kindly notated all of the pieces by ear for me ( i'm not great at the classical theory aspect of the work, so this was extremely helpful). then those strings, woodwind and brass were recorded in different studios in both auckland and christchurch, and even my bedroom studio, with a combination of both professional and non-professional players.

I was watching a lot of studio ghibli films when i wrote this, as well as listening to the bollywood film devdas' score and howard shore's score for lord of the rings a lot. composers of these magical film scores are those who most resonate with me at the moment, because i am very attracted to that fantasy/ancient otherworldly style of writing and it is the most obvious influence in this particular album. of course artists like suzanne ciani and bjork inspire me a lot too, because i see them and think, "yes, there are women in that place and they have created a space for others like me".

AQ: In other interviews you have alluded to how now seems to be quite an exciting time for women artists in New Zealand and also about wanting to connect with an overseas audience more. How do you think the local and New Zealand scene compares to overseas?

Indi: this question is sort of two questions. it is a really good time for women artists in NZ (aldous, lorde, fazerdaze, chelsea jade, tiny ruins, soccer practice, etc) but i also think we have a lot of work to do before it becomes an exciting and intersectional scene. i applaud APRA for changing their policy and encouraging more women to join as writers, and i hope that this is a step in the direction of other actions like ensuring there are safe spaces for us, putting an equal amount of women and men on festival line-ups and the language used about and directed to us in the media. i think this applies even more so for minorities such as LGBTQ, maori and other POCs, and we need to listen to what they are saying about their experience of the current music scene in NZ. we have a lot of years of white men being the only group legally allowed to be educated and allowed to compose/publish music to catch up on.

with regards to overseas, i haven't been overseas enough to really speak for the music scenes there. i do think the quality of work in nz is very unique in comparison however, due to our geographical isolation from the rest of the world and our lush natural environment. (cue unashamed green party plugging)

AQ: I love the music video for Precipice. Are there more music videos and/or live shows planned? I was lucky enough to catch a New Dawn show earlier this year. It was magical and the audience is definitely taken to another place during your performances. Creating a full atmosphere and experience is obviously very important to you whether it's in a video or a live show.

Indi: yes i think my musical priority is teleportation. if i can convince you and toto that you are not in kansas anymore then i have succeeded.

there will be a nz tour in oct-nov but i haven't booked the dates yet, as well as a EU tour next year because i am moving there.

i have a couple really beautiful videos planned, one for 'Woman' and one for 'Airportal' but they won't be released til the end of this year because i am a busy human and these things take love and time.

If you haven't heard Sink Ya Teeth before - now is definitely the time to listen to their music. They have recently released their first single "If You See Me" (b-side Circumstance) on 1965 records and have exciting plans for the future. I really enjoyed talking to Gem, who is one half of the band about them!

AQ: I have listened to your music online and I love your sound! In an interview that I was listening to on Soundcloud you talked about your previous projects and how Sink Ya Teeth grew from those. How would you describe your sound to new listeners? Are there influences current or older which are important to you?

Gem: Ah thank you! Yeah we’ve both been doing music for a while and previous to SYT I was playing guitar for Maria’s own project Girl in a Thunderbolt. In the early 2000’s I was in a band called Kaito and I got a lot of my musical knowledge from that experience. I would be introduced to new music either from touring with other bands or being played albums on the long journeys in the tour van or through other artists on our label. It influenced the way I played bass back than and I still play it the same now.

AQ: You have talked about your love of ESG and dance music. Do you see yourselves as bridging a gap between the dance and d.i.y. guitar/punk etc cultures and scenes? Any favourite labels/artists/venues etc?

Gem: Yes I would like to think so. We try to include a dancy element to our songs, cos everyone likes music that can get your shoulders and hips moving! We also try to incorporate a bit of new wave, post modern, electro kinda feel too. Favourite bands past and present: ESG, Gang of Four, Liars, The Rapture, Le Tigre. They have stood the test of time for me. Some of the newer bands I like that have influenced me in the last couple years are Lonelady, Las Kellies, Jane Weaver, Thee Oh See’s, Baxter Dury, and more recently I discovered Nadine Shah as she is on 1965 and I’m now addicted to her album Fast Food. Maria introduced me to the Tom Tom club last summer and I now adore them too. Maria’s currently digging a lot of 80s music; anything from Echo & The Bunnymen to Chicago house.

AQ: I noticed on your website that you have signed to a label! Congratulations! Is there anything you can share with fans and potential listeners about upcoming projects? Can we expect an EP or an album?

Gem: We have! We’re stoked to have signed to 1965 Records! To be championed by James Endeacott (who runs the label) is something we’re super proud of as he’s a bit of a legend in the British Music industry. Our first single ‘If You See Me’ is out late May. It’ll be on Spotify and all the usual places but we’re also getting limited edition 7” white label vinyl pressed which we are gonna decorate individually ourselves. We like to make work for ourselves…The B side to that will be Circumstance which is available to preview on the 1965 SoundCloud page. (or should be by the time this goes out!)

AQ: Can you describe your songwriting and/or recording process at all? It's obvious that both sounds and lyrics are important to you. It's both hypnotic sonic-ally and poetic lyrically - it comes together beautifully and is emotional in both senses.

Gem: In terms of how we physically write them, Maria usually comes up with the main bulk of a song and then if it needs a bass line or vocal harmony or anything else I can hear in my head I will add one. When we first started back in July 2017 we met up with each other twice over the summer - once at the beginning to decide to start a band and figure out how to collaborate, and once at the end to start planning what to do with the 13 songs that we’d written in between! We were just constantly sending each other recorded ideas and adding to them. So for example Maria would send me a beat, I would add a guitar and/or bassline, and send it back, and Maria would then add vocals and keys. We were never in the same room, yet we only live a 10 minute walk from each other! We had no idea how we were gonna play them live but that didn't matter at that point, we were just enjoying writing. Now that we’ve been playing live a while we write more with the live performance in mind. And meet up much more often!

AQ: Your live set-up looks amazing! In a video I watched of you at the Owl Sanctuary you have bass and also drums and synth. It looks like you head into almost experimental territory. I love experimental music although I don't like labeling it that way exactly. Do you have a relationship with those scenes and sounds?

Gem: We also have a backing track. As a 2 piece we needed to find a way to fill the sound out, and other musicians are just so hard to find, let alone commit, so a backing track was the easiest option. It allows us to do music with sounds that we love rather than being restricted to just live instruments. I just play bass, but I sometimes use it like it would be a guitar part in a song. Other times I use my Line 6 effects pedal with the synth sounds on it to use it like a synth. I’ve only just dipped my toe in with the effects on my bass. I plan to experiment a lot more with them.

I recently had the chance to speak to Norwich Riot Grrrl band Peach Club! Their answers to my questions are as inspiring and energetic as their music. You can check out their current releases here.

AQ: The Bitch Diaries and Mission Impossible are both great! I love the ferocity of them and you are all such talented writers and musicians. Can you talk a bit about how those two releases came together and what we can expect next from Peach Club? More singles/EP's or a full length, maybe?

PC: ''The Bitch Diaries' was our first release as a four. The songs on the EP we'd had for a while and had been playing live a lot, so we thought it was about time to put them together. 'Mission Impossible' however was more of a solid concept we had. We released three singles, one a month, at the end of last year with 'Mission Impossible' at the end. That was a really good release for us as we had a large buildup to it and a real idea of exactly how we wanted it to play out. We're hoping to record an extended EP in the summer, but all is not confirmed yet.

AQ: Mission Impossible encapsulates the arrogance of some men in the music industry. Is there are difference between how things are for you now and how they were for you starting out as a band? In one of your other interviews you talked about exceeding people's expectations of you. It's very inspiring! To me it seems like being political is a necessity rather than a choice.

PC: Recently we haven't really been playing all male lineups like we used to. To begin with we were mostly with male bands so they had this expectation of 'they're going to be shit because they're girls'. However playing with non-male bands, people are more excited to see what we have to offer regardless of if they've listened to or seen us before. I think being girls making punk is a political statement in itself! Punk is seen as this aggressive male genre but more and more girls are breaking into the scene and it's amazing.

AQ: Is there a difference between how you approach recording and live performances? Does one take precedence over the other? I can see both have a lot of energy from listening and watching the performances on You Tube!

PC: Both are very important to us as either of them could be someone's first impression of us. However, we much prefer playing live because it's so much fun and we love the energy that bounces off each other and the audience!

AQ: You have talked about how Peach Club represent a new kind of Riot Grrrl. Can you talk about your relationship to original riot grrrls and other current bands or other inspirations as I know you like Charli XCX from reading your tweets and classic pop from the 1990's and 2000's? Live instruments like guitar, bass and drums are obviously important to you.

PC: With original Riot Grrrl, it wasn't very inclusive. We like the sounds and the ideals of Riot Grrrl but we want to make it more relevant to now and more inclusive. We take a lot of musical inspiration from 90's grunge rock but I think aesthetically we take inspiration from more popular artists today. I love Charli XCX and take inspiration from her badass, i-give-no-fucks attitude rather than her music.

AQ: Do you have any other favourites or inspirations you'd like to share with readers whether they be art, zines, books, films etc?

PC: We're really inspired by other female and non-male artists such as Poppy Marriott who is a good friend of ours. She's a photographer and zine maker and her work is incredible. We played with a band called Brosephine when we played a show in London and they're amazing and we've been quite inspired by their music since. We also take inspiration from 90's cult films such as Jawbreaker and Clueless but I guess that's more aesthetics rather than musically.

AQ: Do you have any tips for riot grrrls starting out? Whether it be about writing songs or learning instruments etc? Or activism in general.

PC: Our best tip would be not to hold back. Be brutally honest with your lyrics and you'll really pack a punch.

There is no group out there quite like Barf Troop and there is no artist quite like Babe Simpson, either! I for one am continually inspired by the art they put into the world. The Young Blood ep was just the beginning for Babe Simpson and Babe and the Troop have a lot more in store for their fans and fans to be. Thank you to Babe Simpson for these thoughtful and generous answers and for being such a lovely person to talk to!

AQ: This has been a year of new projects for you. Firstly you released your debut ep Young Blood earlier in the year which I have had on repeat since it came out and now you have launched a new weekly series of DJ mixes called “How Do You Say?”. It's amazing! I love the range of music you play. What are some of your main inspirations?

BS: Inspiration music-wise comes from emotion, I'd say. I'm definitely inspired by every and any sound I hear that comes from a natural place of expression. The innate need for connection is something everyone feels and I appreciate whenever it's done earnestly in song. Whether it's with or without lyrics, I'm inspired by the ability of certain songs to pull people from all walks of life onto the same page. There's so much unity made through music that I can't help but gravitate to whatever's trying to tell us something and makes me feel less alone.

AQ: You produced Young Blood in its entirety. Was this an easy decision to make? That is so inspiring for people like me who would love to try their hand at d.i.y. musical projects.

BS: It was a decision that was easy to make but it was one that was made out of necessity. I've always known I wanted to be a producer, from making and supervising stuff not just for myself but for other people as well, but I've never had anyone to teach me where to start. It's super frustrating of course because I went so long without making anything because I was constantly searching for my sound within someone else's they created and the stuff I had access to was never anything made with me in mind and I refused to bend. I knew I couldn't just go on helplessly until I found a perfect match with another producer, so I decided then I would start then making music for myself, and it's the best I've ever done. There's nothing but freedom in controlling exactly how you want everything to be and working on your own terms. It's such a relief. It's so empowering. I have my best interests in mind, I know I can make any alterations I want, there isn't a single idea that's too avant garde to try to explain to anyone else, because I know what I have in mind, I taught myself how to make it, and it shows. It's wonderful that it's something that can be inspiring for anyone else, I encourage anyone who has ever thought about producing but hasn't taken the step yet to just dive in! There's nothing to lose, you have to start somewhere, and you'll learn so much about yourself in the process. It's extremely intimate and eye-opening!

AQ: How do you know what form a piece will take as you produce raps, instrumentals and other songs. Journalists love to put labels on things but I think it's so nice not to have to.

BS: Everyone starts out with an idea but it's hard to say you think you know especially when you don't, and I honestly don't think you know what the end result of something will be until it's complete. There are so many factors that will influence the direction of work, random new ideas, a dramatic change in your life creating a change in your mood, running it past other people especially if it's a collaborative effort. There's nothing at all wrong with not being exact because that's natural. Creating is a process, and you grow and learn throughout and it's only right for whatever you're making to reflect that. You could have a loose idea for a song that goes one way and then you find out how to perfectly execute it so then that frees whatever idea you were compromising because you just haven't put your finger on it just yet before. I usually work on quite a handful of things at once and sometimes I move parts of them into each other and sometimes work just end up completely blending into one bigger project, which is amazing, that was the way it was intended to be all along, I just didn't know it until then. That's the real beauty of being able to make something, the mystery surrounding it.

AQ: I know you have new solo music in the works and are also recording more music with Barf Troop (who I am also such a fan of). Is the process very different when you are working alone and working with the group? From your previous interviews, I know both mean a lot to you.

BS: The process is identical. As secretive as I can be, there's nothing I'm afraid of sharing that I'm working on by myself and I share steps along the way with the Troop. For group stuff we all riff off each other, which is great because if we find a different rhythm in one another, we can immediately get/offer feedback and build super tracks!

AQ: Living in New Zealand – it's hard for me to contemplate what living in the USA at the moment must be like. I keep myself informed as much as I can. You and Barf Troop are inspiring for both your music and the way you speak out about so many important issues in the music, in interviews, through your social media channels etc. It's powerful. What can fans look forward to from you and Barf Troop? I know you have already hinted at a few different things?

BS: Expect the unexpected! Barf Troop is at an extremely interesting and pivotal time in our development personally and as artists, which goes hand in hand. It will most definitely show. Our new work has a much more mature sound that we've developed from just growing and learning naturally so it's taking a bit of time to make. Barf Troop was founded with the value of being true to yourself above any other so everything is much more hands on, complicated, natural- us. It's important to reflect the times and reflect how you feel without holding back, which is at the forefront of everything we're working on. Expect new music, expect new ways to connect, expect new ways to get involved! Everyone who has ever supported Barf Troop is our BTB family and we want to be closer than ever.

Skinny Girl Diet have been one of my favourite bands for awhile now and it was a true pleasure to interview them on the eve of their debut LP Heavyflow's release! If you haven't listened to the music Ursula Holliday, Delilah Holliday and Amelia Cutler make - you are about to discover something special. Thank you to the band for these brilliant answers and for being my first interview on my blog!

AQ: I had a listen to the previews of Heavyflow on iTunes and from that I can tell that it combines the raw excitement of your early ep's with the experience you have gained in the interim – was it important for you to include both new and older music on your debut album? Were you wary of keeping an edge to the music?

SGD: It's definitely exciting putting it all together as we're continuously evolving and changing our sound as we grow up through different experiences we've had and emotions. Every song has a story behind it and mean so much to us. It sums up a time in Delilah's life, so everything is personal but she also incorporates escapism. If she were to open up about each song they would all reflect a time in her life, almost like a diary or a dream she shares with whoever can connect to it. So it was very important to put everything into this album as it's our first ever one! We're never really too conscious of keeping an 'edge' to our music we just make music that we would like (if we weren't in the band) ourselves.

AQ: Your show on NTS is fantastic. I know that you are also involved in things like art shows and making zines. How does being involved in the local community relate to the International and online one? I'm guessing both are important to you.

SGD: NTS is a radio show that really allows you to play whatever you want and do whatever you want with your show, even though we've broken the rules sometimes. We love playing random music. Community within the arts is a necessity as art in societies view is less valuable than academics. So creating spaces with groups of people where you feel comfortable to make art and do whatever you want is a powerful thing.

AQ: What is it like living in a post brexit UK? I love how feminism and politics are at the forefront in your work and you are also engaging with worldwide movements like black lives matter. I feel really emotional when I read/see your interviews as well as when I'm listening to your music.

SGD: It sucks and has just reawakened racism and bigotry to resurface out of the cave it was hiding in. Probably due to the reassurance that the whole of Britain is out of the EU, but we certainly didn't vote for this and we're left with the aftermath of it all. Ursula talks about how British people have gone over to Ibiza and wrecked the beautiful island with binge drinking and partying. Whilst old pensioners retire to their summer houses in Spain. And England wants to leave the EU? No one sees the bigger picture at all. A couple of our friends have been shouted at in the streets with remarks like 'Go Home' which is never nice but they've jokingly been like "I only live down the road mate," It's hard because there are different mechanisms of how people cope, through humour or to completely ignore what's going on around them. However, our way of coping is by speaking out and making music. The world is currently in such a dark place with Trump who is resembling statements that are not dissimilar to the words Hitler spouted, Black people getting lynched and silenced and a women wearing a burkini being told to undress on a Beach - and that's not even the half of it.

AQ: The Heavyflow album cover is so striking! Did it have any particular inspirations?

SGD: It was just another satirical joke from us. Periods are such a natural phenomena that are regarded with such disgust. Which was weird for us as every person was birthed out of someone's womb, created due to the person having these regular cycles, the gift of creating life. Periods are not bad things. Women are expected to hide and suppress completely natural things. Women are bleeding all over the world and we wanted to contrast that imagery against the ultra glamorous image the media sells. It's funny as hell that you're still able to shock in the 21st century talking about something that has been around since the beginning of time, a cavewoman had a period. We call our genre Heavy Flow because our music is heavy but we also think it has a flow about it.

AQ: Has performing live changed for you over time? You have talked about the challenges you have faced in previous interviews.

SGD: It's sadly inescapable as a female and we can shout it from the rooftops but for some reason, people can't help but drown you out with their male ego. We've been playing live for a while now so when stuff like that happens our girl gang fights back and us three just poke fun at the stupidity of their feeble brains.

AQ: Silver Spoons and Yeti pay homage to classic movies as well as modern day feminism and fashion. Personally, I really connect with all those things. Do you have any particular recommendations of films or other inspirations either old or modern for fans?

SGD: Thelma and Louise, Ginger Snaps, Carrie, Whatever Happened To Baby Jane, We Are The Best, Ladies and Gentlemen The Fabulous Stains, Mustang.